earthquake of the year 1755, with 60,000 people. The Portuguese closely resemble the Spaniards in character, with the addition which has given rise to the saying," Add hypocrisy to the vices of the Spaniard, and you make a good Portuguese." The two nations, though of the same lineage, are bitterly hostile to each other. They possess abundant natural resources, but alas! the remark in relation to the face of nature and the mind of man will apply to both, that their energies have been largely misdirected, and a capability of all good converted into an element equally powerful for evil.-The monarchy was founded in the year 1139, by Don Alonzo Henriquez, who, after successfully opposing the Moors, threw off his allegiance to the kings of Castile.-The constitutional form of government was adopted in 1836. Reigning sovereign, Donna Maria 11., came to the throne a minor in 1826.

Oporto, in the province of Entre Douro e Minho, (between the Douro and Minho) on the right bank of the former river, near its mouth, is the only provincial city of importance, exporting immense quantities of port wine, a name derived from that of the place.-Population 70,000.

Braganza, an ancient town in Tras-os-Montes (beyond the mountains, alluding to the Sierra de Estrella) gives its name to the present royal family of Portugal, descended from John, Duke of Braganza, raised to the throne in 1640.-Torres Vedras, a small town in Estremadura, is historically famous as the centre of the celebrated military lines formed by the British in 1810.

277. The peninsula at large has a conspicuous place on the page of history. It formed one of the most flourishing parts of the Roman empire; gave Trajan to the imperial throne; and added the names of Lucan, Martial, and Seneca to the list of the Latin classics. In the middle ages, while under the dominion of the Moors, it was almost the only scene of scientific and literary culture in Europe. Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Columbus found his way to the new world from the port of Palos, now an almost deserted site on the west coast of Andalusia; and a few years later, Vasco de Gama traced the route to the East Indies by the Cape from the estuary of the Tagus, starting from the site at present occupied by the church and monastery of Belem, which were built in honour of the event. More recently, the Capes St. Vincent and Trafalgar witnessed the naval superiority of Great Britain; and on the fields of Salamanca and Vittoria, those victories were gained which so essentially contributed to overthrow the military despotism of Napoleon. But other transactions darkly

stain the annals of the country. The infamous Inquisition, a tribunal of bad faith, bigotry, confiscation, blood, and fire, misnamed the Holy Office, introduced at the instance of Ferdinand, the husband of Isabella, reigned in all its terrors down to the present century. It was first fixedly established at Seville, in 1481, and on the flat plain without the walls, the foundations of a square platform mark the Quemadero, or the burning-place, where the last act of the tragedy of the auto-da-fe was performed by the civil power. The Spanish statistics of this infernal engine, which was only abolished in the year 1820, include 34,611 persons burned alive, 18,048 burned in effigy, and 288,109 consigned to the prisons and galleys. Its spirit is far from being extinct, and even the descendants of those convicted by the tribunal, wherever known, are regarded as having contracted an indelible and dishonouring stain. Neither Spain nor Portugal admits of religious toleration. Both countries remain the dark abode of Popery and superstition, and private efforts to introduce the light of the gospel, particularly into Spain, are beset with difficulties and attended with danger.

SPANISH FOREIGN POSSESSIONS.-Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, and a few other places on the north coast of Africa; the Canary Islands, on the north west coast of Africa; Cuba and Porto Rico, in the West Indies; and portions of the Philippine and Ladrone Islands.

PORTUGUESE FOREIGN POSSESSIONS-the Azores in the Atlantic; Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Cape Verde Islands, off the north-west coast of Africa; some settlements in Angola, on the south-west coast; Goa, on the west coast of India; portions of Timor and Flores, in the Indian Archipelago; and Macao, in China. The Azores geographically belong to Europe, though about 800 miles from its nearest point. They consist of nine volcanic islands, mountainous, and highly productive. San Miguel and Terceira are the largest, the latter containing Angra the capital of the group. The total population is estimated at upwards of 200,000.

DENMARK.

278. Denmark, the mark or country of the Dane, consists of a peninsula projecting from the north of Germany, anciently called the Cimbrica Chersonesus, with numerous adjoining islands, bounded on the west by the German ocean, on the north by the Skager Rack, on the east by the Cattegat, Sweden, and the Baltic, and on the south by the states of Mecklenburg, Hamburg, and the river Elbe. The peninsula extends about 300 miles from north

to south; and upwards of 100 from east to west, in the broadest part. The area, including the archipelago, amounts to 23,000 square miles, being about one-third less than that of Ireland. A large extent of the western coast is a wilderness of sand, set in motion by the slightest wind, in which a living creature is rarely to be seen, the sea presenting little that is enlivening, as ships avoid a shore which has hardly a single port to afford protection or shelter. The country inland is generally low and flat, forming part of the great plain of Europe. It is deeply penetrated by fiords, or inlets of the sea, contains numerous marshes and small lakes, infertile sandy tracts abounding in the north, and rich meadow grounds in the south. Besides the estuary of the Elbe, partly belonging to Denmark, the only important navigable river is the Eyder, which divides Schleswig and Holstein, and enters the German ocean below Frederickstadt. This stream was deemed the northern boundary of the empire of the Franks in the days of Charlemagne, and of the German empire in after times.

279. Insular Denmark comprises, east of the mainland, the large Islands of Funen, separated from the peninsula by the channel of the Little Belt; Zealand, divided from Funen by the Great Belt, and from Sweden by the Sound; Langeland, Aland, Falster, and Moen, on the south; and Bornholm in the Baltic. Numerous small islets adjoin the preceding, among which, that of Hveen, or Hoëne, at the southern entrance of the Sound, is historically celebrated as the residence of Tycho Brahe, where he erected the fanciful structure of Uraniberg, or the Castle of the Heavens, made his astronomical observations, and was visited by James 1. of England. The south western side of the peninsula has also a chain of small islands; the furthest from the shore, Heligoland, belonging to Great Britain, lying at a nearly equal distance from the mouths of the Elbe and Eyder.

280. The kingdom is divided into four great provinces, and contains a population somewhat exceeding 2,000,000.

Denmark Proper, consisting of Jutland) Copenhagen, Elsinore, Aarhuus.

and most of the islands

Duchy of Schleswig ..............................Schleswig, Flensborg.

Duchy of Holstein................................. Kiel, Altona, Gluckstadt, Rensburg Duchy of Lauenburg............................... Lauenburg, Ratzeburg,

Copenhagen (Merchant's Haven), the capital, in lat. 55° 40′ N., and long. 12° 38′ E., is situated partly on the east side of Zealand, and partly on the island of Amack, the two forming a superb harbour. The city is protected by strong fortifications, and contains within a circumference of about five miles upwards of 120,000 inhabitants. It has a university founded by Christian 1., in 1478, a valuable royal library, a museum rich in northern antiquities, and very beautiful environs. The country produces only a few unimportant manufactures.-Agriculture, chiefly the growth of the inferior cereals, and cattle reared on the rich pastures of Holstein, with the fisheries, are the main dependence of the people.--They are almost all Lutherans, but a lethargic indifference to every thing which stimulates devotional feelings and refers to the world to come, is very general, and legibly impressed upon the face of society.— The constitutional form of government was adopted in the year 1834. Reigning sovereign Frederick vII.-ascended the throne 1848.

Altona, on the north bank of the Elbe, immediately west of Hamburg, is the largest provincial town.-Population, 26,000. Kiel, a port on the east coast of Holstein, possesses a university founded by Duke Christian Albert, in 1665; and Gluckstadt, near the mouth of the Elbe, a marine school.

At Elsinore, a town on the west side of the Sound, vessels passing the strait pay tell to the Danish Government, except those of Sweden, an important source of revenue. The annual number amounts to nearly 20,000. The castle of Cronberg, in the neighbourhood, commands the passage. At Roskilde, to the west of Copenhagen, formerly the capital of the kingdom, now a very small town, the Danish monarchs are buried.

Railway communication subsists in Holstein from Altona to Gluckstadt, Rensburg, and Kiel.

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, were united under one crown by the treaty of Calmar, in 1397. Sweden finally renounced the union in 1523, but the other two kingdoms remained connected down to 1814, when Norway was annexed to Sweden.

The Danes proper, or the inhabitants of Jutland and the islands belong to the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic family; and the inhabitants of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, to the German branch. The recent hostilities between the two races will probably long remain a fruitful source of discord.

DANISH FOREIGN POSSESSIONS-Faroe Isles, in the North Atlantic; Iceland, and the west coast of Greenland (See Danish America); Santa Cruz, St. Thomas, St. Peter, and St. John, in the West Indies; and settlements on the Guinea coast.

The Faröe Isles, geographically belonging to Europe, are about 400 miles west of Norway, and 185 north-west of the Shetlands. They number twenty five, excluding mere rocks, of which seventeen are inhabited. In 1834, the population amounted to 6,928. Thorshavn, in Stromoe, is the capital of the group, and the only town. The islands have no trees, and barley is the only cereal that can be grown.

Heligoland (Holy Island), on the s.w. coast of Denmark, a possession of Great Britain since 1807, was anciently a stronghold of Saxon paganism.— Population, 2,000; fishermen and pilots.

NORWAY AND SWEDEN.

281. These two countries, united under one crown, occupy the largest peninsula of Europe, commonly called the Scandinavian, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Atlantic and the German Ocean, on the south by the Skager Rack, Cattegat, and the Baltic, and on the east by the Baltic, the Gulf of Bothnia, and a part of the Russian empire. The greatest length from the north of Norway to the south of Sweden is nearly 1,200 miles; the greatest breadth, in the latitude of Christiania and Upsal, is about 450 miles, the area comprehending 292,000 square miles; of which Sweden possesses one-sixth more than Norway.-The important islands of Gottland and Eland, with many small islets, occur off the east coast of Sweden; and a vast chain extends along nearly the whole coast of Norway. The principal groups of the latter are the Vigten Isles, in lat. 65°, historically important as the native country of Rollo, the conqueror of Normandy, and the ancestor of William the Conqueror; the Loffoden Isles, further north, a great fishing station, containing the famous Maelström, (grinding stream), a whirlpool formed by the collision of opposite tidal currents; and the Tromsen Isles, in a still higher latitude, containing the most northerly town of Europe, Hammerfest, in the island of Hvaloe, and the North Cape, in the island of Mageroe, the terminating point of Europe towards the pole.

282. The western side of the peninsula has a very elevated, rugged, and highly picturesque surface.-Mountains and table-lands occupy nearly the whole of Norway, and form the boundary for some distance between that country and Sweden, variously protruding into the latter teritory. The Thulian mountains in the south, the Dovrefield, or Dofrines, in the centre, and the Kiolen range in the north, form a continuous region of high land, extending from Cape Lindesnæs, or the Naze, the most southerly point of Norway, to its northern extremity. Skagerstoltind, the most elevated summit, in the province of Bergen, rises to the height of 8,133 feet, far above the line of perpetual snow. In the southern districts, the snow limit occurs at the elevation of about 5,000 feet, but has a much lower altitude in the colder climate of the north; and of the whole